De Long Blog

March 08, 2018

December 15, 2017

Greece is currently the only map remaining with a planned release date of June 2018. I know we tried to get it out this year but got bogged down with an overload of information working on the Austria and Hungary map.

March 27, 2015

Note: The chart has been updated 7/14/2017 to include up to 2015 vintages.

In 2007 Hugh Johnson said that vintages don't matter anymore and I pretty much agreed. His statement was more of a rebuke to the wine trade and its use of snobbery and insecurity of consumers to inflate prices. This has been especially true of top Bordeaux wines but after a string of difficult years, there has been less emphasis on using vintage as a marketing tool.

This is exactly why we should pay at least a little more attention to vintages. The world is getting warmer but more importantly, the weather is getting more erratic. Our vintage chart is deliberately done in broad strokes on a 1 to 5 scale mainly because it's impossible to be precise for an entire region. Unfortunately it can't do a very good job showing a mixed vintage, so when you see any vintage less than a 4, it makes sense to be a little cautious especially when purchasing expensive wines.

October 21, 2014

Current maps (including Germany which we are now putting the final touches on):

Upcoming maps:

We're now committing the resources to complete all of the maps within the next year. To be honest, when we started, we thought it would be much easier. But we haven't compromised accuracy, fact checking or quality in putting our maps together. Thank you for your patience.

Any amount of input on our mapping would be greatly appreciated. To show our appreciation, we're giving away a set of our first six maps. To enter, simply write a response to this blog post. A winner will be chosen at random on Friday, November 15th 2014.

Please have a go at any one, a few or all of these questions:

Are there any other countries or specific region(s) that you would like to see as well?

Would you like to see more folded maps? We launched a folded version of our Italian map but the sales were just meh - perhaps because it wasn't in a set.

Would a boxed set of all 12 maps (similar in format to the image below) appeal to you? What would be a fair price for this?

How about electronic version - Ipad, android tablet - of all of the maps? What would be a fair price for this?

Our current maps are 24x 36 inches. Would you like to see smaller format maps as well? Larger format?

Last but not least, would you like to see more countries/regions in David Gissen's amazing Metro Maps Format? In a boxed and/or electronic format as well?

Any input is greatly appreciated. Thank you for your support!

September 10, 2014

Desert Island Sixes are a mixed half case of the wines that you would want if stranded on a desert island. They may not be the greatest you've ever tasted but ones that you won't tire of (you may be on that island for a while!). Vintages are not given - these are wines that are enjoyed even in bad years. It can be tricky to narrow it down to six (a few bottles may have to be thrown overboard!). Come up with your own - it's a fun way to take a snapshot of your taste in wine!

June 26, 2014

This map was almost as difficult to produce as our Wine Map of Italy. There weren’t bribes to paid to shady men in funny hats or anything like that but four different countries with different rules and agencies made it much harder than imagined.

Chile is well documented and straight-forward as you might expect in a exporting powerhouse. Brazil and Uruguay are also fairly straight-forward but some digging through their wine laws was essential to provide more detail. Argentina was just confounding. The Wines of Argentina publishes maps that are somewhat accurate but also somewhat vague, mislabeled, with some regions in the wrong place and some using non-standard names. For example, Uco Valley center isn’t a region – it’s actually called Tunuyán. This is just one of many. When I asked them about this, they were very friendly and a little defensive. Hopefully they’ll revamp their maps in the future. Especially since the internet easily facilitates the bobbling head repetition of errors and misinformation.

June 12, 2014

Soylent, a new food replacement, was tasted by a sommelier, a gastroenterologist, a personal trainer and a New Times dining reporter. All have sensible reactions but watch sommelier Michael Madrigale for a great example of how to taste.

At the start he's the most non-judgemental and analytical of the tasters. He's actually giving it a fair chance. But his assessment is the most brutally honest and the one to cheer for: "If this was the only thing left on earth to eat - why bother?" Go Madrigale!

March 31, 2014

July 10, 2013

Some corks look strange or have strange things growing on them and it doesn't affect the wine. This one, however, was unbelievably strong and a good (or horrible) example of TCA (the technical acronym for 2,4,6-Trichloroanisole or cork taint). I won't mention the winemaker since I don't want to taint them for something out of their control.